“Seized: Inside The Mystery Of Epilepsy” tells powerful, intimate stories of patients, families and doctors pioneering new treatments for one of the world’s oldest and most mysterious diseases – a disease that even in the 21st century is often kept secret and carries great stigma.
Three million Americans have epilepsy. It affects more people than brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy combined. Striking the organ most responsible for our very humanity – the brain – it can cause terrifying and disabling seizures that come without warning, at any time, in many different forms. For almost one third of all patients, epilepsy is uncontrollable, unremitting, and all consuming. And even as doctors and patients push the frontiers of treatment forward, a fundamental question remains – what causes epilepsy?
The film follows the personal struggles of four individuals and their families as they face the huge challenges of living with epilepsy and courageously search for new treatments. The one-hour documentary also features leaders in epilepsy research, including: Dr. Orrin Devinsky, director of the NYU Langone Epilepsy Center; Dr. Robert Finkelstein, program director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and Dr. Karen Parko, neurologist, San Francisco VA Medical Center.
In the special, we meet Ouida, a young mother, who is taking a chance on a radical new surgery – a smart device that will be implanted in her brain to detect and control seizure activity. We follow Caitlin and Lili, young women who both have severe forms of epilepsy that developed in their first years of life, but see different results from a controversial new treatment involving an extract from medical marijuana.
We also meet Andy, who had a massive, violent seizure after serving in the Army in Afghanistan. Andy’s doctor suspects that a blast he experienced during his deployment in Afghanistan caused traumatic brain injury, which led to post-traumatic epilepsy. Researchers believe that Andy’s case offers promising new insights into one of the root causes of epilepsy.
Enlightening and emotional, “Seized: Inside The Mystery Of Epilepsy” brings epilepsy out of secrecy and into a new era of hope and understanding.
A production of Partisan Pictures, produced by Peter Schnall and Elizabeth Arledge, and presented on PBS by Twin Cities PBS/Minneapolis-St. Paul. Funding for this program was provided by The Pollner Family and The Thorpe Family.
The full episode is available for online viewing through May 3, 2019.
